There have been several threads about this topic over the years I've been on the forum. Russell Versaci (architect) designs some of these homes, I think. The cabinetry and finish details are beautiful (Crown Point cabinets I'm pretty sure). When I looked into it, the avg. cost per sq foot was around $200 --- which is probably a savings if you live in New England, or around DC area of Virginia where they have a second location. However, in NC, it is possible to build a stick built home for less. Secondly, while I learned about it, and believe it is a great product, the general public might not be quite as savvy about all of the benefits. We decided against it because it didn't offer us cost savings (here), and the negative opinion of others of this type of building. We did think, however, if we had a more private location, it could be the perfect solution! I will definitely look at it again if we are ever in a position to build a second home!

Thank you for sharing your experience, mythreesonsnc. I tried looking through the manufactured home forum and I tried typing Conner in the search engine of the homes forum, but came up with very few references, so I decided to post my inquiry.

We've done some initial inquires with a couple of builders on the the island and we're being told it will run us about $200 a square foot for a nice shell, and we could do all the interior finish work (we are experienced with that type of work), or it will cost at least $350 a square foot some something with a finished interior for the quality of cabinetry and trim work we are hoping for.

Funny you mentioned Russell Versaci - I just checked out a book by him from our local library yesterday. He definitely has the attention to detail and design that appeals to us. One of the homes in the book is a custom New England shingle style home built here in the Puget Sound area, designed by a local architect, so we may now have a lead on someone locally who can design something we would love.

The Connor website indicates their pricing includes the kitchen cabinets and interior trim work and they say they build their own kitchen cabinets in two style options - both look very high end (inset doors and drawers). So even if we factor in around $40 to $50 per square foot to ship, it still might be worth doing. Of course our other concern will be finding a good builder who will be open to trying something new, since I doubt many homes of this type have been built around here. (There's a few modular home manufacturers around here, but they all offer very contemporary boxy homes.)

Hi Carpecattus,

What did you decide about Connor homes?

We're still a couple of years off from building (although we are currently exploring options that might let us build sooner), but we really have our hearts set on using Connor. Hubby and I share a love of "New England" traditional architecture (especially Nantucket shingle style homes) and we appreciate Connor's attention to classical detail. All of our research over the last several months indicates they offer a high quality product and they are very willing to work with homeowners who might need a custom floor plan. (They can design something for you in-house, or they can work with your architect if you prefer.) I love the look of the "Grace Carrington" house and I am playing with the floor plan to see if we can adapt it to our needs. (We only need around 2000 square feet and we want master suites on both the main level and upstairs. We're in our early 50's and this will be our forever home.)

Our property has an incredible view, and is part of a new development which will likely have nicer, higher end homes. We feel confident a Connor home will fit in - no qualms about someone mistaking it for a "manufactured" home! :-)

PS: I just checked out the book "Prefabulous and Sustainable" from my local library. One of the featured homes in the book is a Connor home - beautiful and inspiring!

Yes - moved in last year. Beautiful house, but not a fan of the company itself. Had a lot of quality issues with the interior cabinetry and windows and was very disappointed with the company's lack of response.

Horseneck- Do you mind sharing more details regarding the quality issues experienced with the cabinetry and windows. From the information provided in the catalog, it appears that the exterior windows are provided by a company based in VT (Green Mountain Windows). While we are also a couple of years out from building, my husband and I have been leaning toward Connor for our planned home in western NC. Truly, any details that you can share would be tremendously helpful.

Like many of you, I and my wife also fell in love with the pictures and designs on the Connor website. I'm also very interested in hearing both positive and negative feedback.

I was disheartened to do a search today and saw a BBB complaint against Connor that said it was not resolved. Link is below (I think). Certainly have to take everything you read with a grain of salt because if a couple of grand was their only complaint and everything else was good, that's not a bad result when building a house.

I do hope someday to use Connor to build a panelized house in the New England style but certainly want to get more information and feedback.

Here is a link that might be useful: BBB - MA, VT, ME, RI

This post was edited by rabbit03 on Mon, Jan 28, 13 at 17:11

I, too, am exploring building a connor home. Horseneck, can you elaborate on the quality issues that you experienced with the interior cabinets? Did Connor resolve the issues ever? And what about the windows? Thanks!
And, were the cost estimates that Connor gave you fairly accurate? thanks

We built a large addition using panelized "eSIP" construction from Davis Frame in NH. (Sections of conventional 2x6 framing, sheathed and insulated with closed cell foam, no inside finish) We were extremely happy with the quality of the product and very happy with the very efficient use of materials in the construction. As far as we could tell it was a wash from a cost perspective vs stick built, but offered advantages in speed and the virtue of walls getting put together in a warm, dry, flat environment. The machine that takes a CAD drawing of your structure and pile of 2x6 boards and spits out labeled parts ready to assemble into various wall structures is pretty impressive. We only had them make the shell, the rest of the building was completed on site.

rwiegand & horseneck

Did you work with traditional builder installing the panelized eSIP or did the Davis Frame have a preferred construction co? Was it easy to follow? Concerned that my stick builder might have issues. Thanks in advance for your response.

Our builder proposed using Davis as an alternative to stick framing. He had done a couple before. We continue to be very happy with the build-- it's 1 deg out right now and all the extra insulation we added is feeling like a good investment! The sips aren't hard to put together, but some care and precision is required on the foundation work,

Hi. Did anyone end up building a Connor home? We are looking to build a house in the near future and have received quotes from Connor homes. We are curious how your experience was and if their cost estimates are somewhat accurate.

Hi, Horseneck here. I forgot about my post here. Yes, we did build the Connor Home and have now be living in it for 5 years, happily I might add. The issues we had with the company were resolved mainly because of the F they received from our complaint with the BBB. At that point they made good, saying it was an "oversight". But, I don't want to beat a dead horse. Overall we are very satisfied. We built both a house and barn and had a local contractor do the construction. I'll address some of the questions that came our way over the years.

1. The windows (Green Mountain) have had many failures with the seals between panes. I think we had at least 1/2 dozen fail, but they have all been replaced. The other issue is the spring mechanism that keeps the window in place when open is prone to failure. We replaced many of those and we still have a couple of windows where those have failed (that's on us, we just haven't gotten around to it). They are nice looking windows though.

2. They make their own cabinets and we had problems with warping of cabinet doors. There were also some problems with design which my contractor was able to fix. I had originally had them make my medicine cabinets, but every door was warped and I replaced them with cabinets from Restoration Hardware because their construction guy was a real pain. This is where our problems began with Connor. I understand this guy has left the company at this point. Overall, they do build a solid cabinet. The only real thing I would do differently as far as the cabinets is the finish. We had them sprayed with lacquer. It's prone to chipping, as opposed mildly abrading. I would have used a milk paint finish if I had to do it over.

3. In response to longgreenhouse, he was a traditional builder, a friend of mine (and we still remain friends). I'd say he was looked down upon by Connor Homes, but he was the only guy I would trust to build my home.

4. As to costs, it's hard to tell what the savings are, if any. There are many factors to consider. We did go over budget with ours - put in many state-of-the-art functions. But I feel the price we got from Connor was a good price as a starting point. It's where you go from there that the costs add up.

Okeomust, we too have a Connor home and we are in about 7 years. We love our home Moses Reed home, Cape they don't offer it anymore? We also have the Green mountain windows and they are now leaking seals the pane is fogged up on some we went directly to Green mountain for replacement, so far two, but we are starting to see more windows with this problem. Did you go directly ti Green mountain or thru Connor? Hope you are enjoying your home as much as we do.

Having previously lived in an older home with wood siding that constantly needed to be repaired or have boards replaced, I'm curious on those who've built Connor homes if you have experienced any exterior maintenance issues with the wood exterior used by Connor. We have a farmette (10 acres) in Virginia where we plan to build a 'New Old House' and am considering Connor. Thank you for the posts about the windows failing...will go another route with those!

I trust you are watching the current "This Old House". The North Shore Project is a Connor home.

Wood siding that "constantly" needs boards replaced seems very odd. Probably an installation issue. Aside from one rot issue due to ground contact I can't say that I've ever needed to replace a clapboard on any of the houses or outbuildings I've lived in or worked on over the last 50 years. Can't say as much for the newer finger-jointed pine trim boards, they started rotting within three years on our last new house. -- cPVC all the way for trim these days.

In new construction I'd be sure to install a rain screen under the siding and follow best practices for insulation and vapor barriers in your region. Typically trapping water and not giving it a good exit path would be problematic.

SBKH - yes I am. Thank you!

rwiegand - deep south...lost of humidity, and hard sun were a deadly combination on the 1 part of the house...Thank you!

Paula, we did a version of the Solomon Beal and yes, we do love it. I have been watching This Old House and it appears to me that they are no longer using Green Mountain for the windows. The home they're building has windows constructed from mahogany, so they appear to be better quality. When we had issues, we went directly to Green Mountain. I just needed to verify that they came through Connor. My contact there was Rob Reed (last window replaced in 2013).

Read your post and then saw this article in the Journal of Light Construction.
JLC

For the people who did use Connor. Was there a average price per square foot? Trying to ball park it.

Hi Paul. If I remember correctly they give some averages (I don't recall what they were), but I don't think they're real world. I think that's mostly because it all depends where your house is built (region, labor costs, etc.) and the finishing materials you choose. I know I was way over any number they gave me. I also had other additional costs - land purchase, infrastructure (the driveway is about 1/4 mile) and mechanical/energy systems.

Regarding price per square foot – earlier this year, Connor informed
us that a nicely trimmed house should cost between $220 and $240 per square
foot to build. That includes the cost of Connor's package (typically 1/3 of the
total) and the cost of the builder's labor and materials (2/3 of the total),
but excludes the site work and land. We were already using our own architect so
we had Connor prepare an estimate based on our plans. The cost of the Connor
package for our plans was $135 per square foot. If that’s 1/3 of the total, the
total to build would be about $400 per square foot. But Connor stated that our
house, at 3700 square feet, is larger than what they normally build and that
would make the builder’s portion of the cost lower. They estimated that the
total cost to build should still be about $240. They said they would send our
plans to a couple of their regular builders to get cost estimates. That was a
couple of weeks ago, and we haven’t heard anything yet, and Connor hasn’t
responded to our emails asking for an update. In the interim, we found the
negative review posted on the Better Business Bureau’s website in November 2015
by a Connor customer who experienced significant time delays and extraordinary
unanticipated expenses on his building project due to a lot of errors made by
Connor.

"due to a lot of errors made by Connor"

A good portion of which I am sure stem from them attempting to price houses by the sq ft (even for budgets)

I was just looking in to Connor Homes and found these comments helpful. I have been disappointed that after several attempts to reach them I have not received any return phone calls or emails. I'm in New Hampshire and kept trying to find out more information when I stumbled on only TWO local articles stating that Connor Homes just laid off their entire workforce. One article was published by a local Vermont newspaper on January 3, 2017 and the other on January 4,2017. Connor Homes Lays off workforce - Jan 4, 2017 the other article is longer and states the entire workforce is furloughed for the entire month while they re-group; Connor Homes furloughs entire workforce to "regroup financially" - For me I plan to stay away. I was wondering why their process timeline was 11-12 months which is as long or longer than stick built. Now I know why and for anyone looking at them note that I had to really dig to find these local Vermont articles about the layoff of the entire company, not a good sign.

MM-thank you for posting this. My original posting on this forum was on August 31, 2016. In late July 2016, Connor told us that they had two builders who could work on our planned house in eastern Mass and that they would send our plans out to these builders for bids. They apparently never sent our plans out for bid and they did not respond to our phone calls or emails until early October 2016. At that time, we sensed something was wrong because the normally cheerful VP of Sales had become a bit abrupt. She discouraged us from contacting their builders and, instead, suggested we find our own builder. Our suspicion was that their regular builders were no longer willing to work with them due to the problems that Connor seemed to be having since the NY investor took over. We were very fortunate that we did not give Connor any money, since our plans were done by our own architect.

Greetings! We are happy to see so much interest on this forum and wanted to provide some clarification about Connor Homes. Mike Connor sold Connor Homes in 2012 to an investment group, which lost focus on the core values of the company and was subsequently closed. However, Mike founded a new company in 2017, Connor Mill-Built Homes. This company offers the same historic architecture, attention to detail, quality, integrity, and customer service on which the company had built a reputation prior to 2012. We invite you to learn more about us here on Houzz, or by contacting us at 802-377-6900 or www.connormill-built.com

My husband and I have been intrigued with Connor mill built homes for a number of years. We even traveled to Vermont, and toured the factory several years ago, before the company restructuring. We were very impressed.

I now work at Winterthur Museum in DE, and Connor Homes now offers a line of classic homes based upon the antique American architecture within the museum. So we are doubly interested!

However, the link that is just above this comment, at the end of the Connor homes comment, does not work. Whenever I perform a search for your website, my computer tells me to stay away, that the link may be hacked. What’s happening?

Good morning Jeannette,

I am so sorry you are having trouble connecting with us. Please try this link www.connormill-built.com or even better, contact us at 802-377-6900. We would love to talk to you about our Winterthur Collection and other homes you may be interested in!

I built a Connor Home in 2010. I absolutely love the house! We upgraded the windows....We live in Vermont and have never had a problem with the windows but we didn't take the "basic" windows that were offered. They are beautiful wood windows and have been very energy efficient--green mountain windows. We also didn't have any issues with the cabinetry! Some of it still looks new...after 10 years with painted cabinetry, some of the kitchen cabinets needed to be painted a little but it was a minor repair. The floors are wide pine and really are beautiful. I have lived in new construction that doesn't compare to the house we purchased from Connor homes. The Rumford fireplace is lovely and all the mill work is top notch! We just love the home. I'm so happy Connor homes is finally up and running again.....

@Connor Mill-Built Homes are you still in business? I have been trying to reach out, and honestly concerned that the above referenced customer service issues have resurrected...

I also noticed they stopped posting on IG. Haven’t seen a post since December 2019. :( So sad if it didn’t make it yet again.

Hi everyone, I thought I'd post this latest update:

https://addisonindependent.com/news/connor-homes-closes-its-middlebury-shop